Saturday, May 16, 2020

Yamaha Portasound PSS-80 keyboard demo

Published on May 16, 2020 Alfonse

"Yamaha Portasound PSS-80 keyboard (1989)

The PSS-80 is a classic simple digital squarewave keyboard with a "voice variator" that allows the envelope and timbre of the preset sounds to be modified. It has no auxilliary or headphone output, so I recorded it with a dynamic mic to try to reduce the sounds of my fingers hammering the keys, with limited success.

All sounds you hear in the track were made using the PSS-80. All parts were recorded to a DAW, where compression, EQ, delay and reverb were added as required - the clarinet part was pitch-shifted down an octave to provide bass notes that aren't on the keyboard itself. Individual drum hits were sampled and processed to allow fresh beats to be built, rather than using the rhythms found on the PSS-80 itself.